46°
Chappaqua and surrounding areas were still humming with clean-up activity two weeks after Tropical Storm Irene swept through Westchester County, bringing torrential rains, downed trees and numerous power and communications outages.
Utility crews and road maintenance trucks swarmed roads throughout the area, and drivers ability to get around at midday was impaired by many temporary road blocks created by tree trimming, road paving, telephone and electrical wire re-stringing and other activity aimed at getting life back to normal after the storm, which lashed New York on Aug. 28.
Bundles of tree limbs, branches and stumps were turning into tinder in the sun all along state and county roads, and pools of mosquito-breeding water remained in some low-lying parts of lawns and yards. Responsibility for carting off the debris depends on the utility that did the pruning: the state picks up debris that falls on state roads.
Getting around remained slow due to extensive road repaving and repair in many sections of the Town of New Castle and adjoining towns, some of which was already scheduled and underway prior to the storm.But one especially rough patch of road remains the portion of Route 120 between Anderson Hill Road in Purchase, past the County Airport and the 684 interchange.
In some stretches, the road is as bumpy and rutted as a country lane. The section is the responsibility of the New York State Dept. of Transportation, and patching is scheduled to begin the week of Sept. 19th and be completed before Sept.25, a DOT official said. More than two miles of Rte. 22 was repaved just prior to Irene, the official said.
For more updates on county clean-up efforts, go to www3.westchestergov.com..Residents who need assistance with debris removal should call 211.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Chappaqua and receive free news updates.
